University of Pretoria, South Africa
17 July 2016
Well, thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Graça Machel, Professor Ndebele, Vice Chancellor de la Rey, members of the Mamelodi families, friends and dignitaries.
I can’t think of a greater honour than giving a lecture named after Nelson Mandela.
I’m also thrilled that the theme of this lecture this year is ‘Living Together’.
It’s truly fitting because in many ways, ‘Living Together’ was also the theme of Nelson Mandela’s life.

In South Africa, violence has a long history. The legacy of slavery, colonial conquest and resistance is still with us. Criminality festers amid inequality, corruption and an underperforming state. The violence impacts our youth and scars them for life. Or it takes their lives. In 2013, non-natural deaths accounted for more than a third of all deaths of people between the ages of 15 and 29 years.

The National Development Plan (NDP): Vision 2030 set a target of training 100 000 PhD students by 2030. South Africa’s annual output stood at a mere 1 800 in 2014. In August 2015, the Department of Higher Education in South Africa introduced the Staffing SA Universities Framework (SSAUF), which aims to train a new generation of younger academics, and to address the current shortage of Black academics, specifically Black female academics. The Department outlined its goal of increasing the PhD output in South Africa to 7000 PhDs annually by 2019.

Honourable Deputy President,
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps,
All Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners,
Captains of industry,
Fellow Africans and friends,
We are delighted to share this 2016 celebration of Africa Day with all of you.
Today marks 53 years since the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul is fast approaching, and we’re preparing to participate in what could be the most important conversation about humanitarian funding yet. But there’s still a high risk that the summit will fail to address key drivers for change laid out in the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing report, ‘Too Important to Fail: Addressing the Humanitarian Financing Gap’.

Storytelling is increasingly relevant to the strategic communication and awareness-raising activities of nonprofit organisations (NPOs) in Africa.
Stories help people to better remember specific experiences. Stories shape our identities. With a great story, you can ensure that donors and supporters understand your work.
But how does your nonprofit tell its story? When you upload a video, a photo, or a blog post about your work, whom are you trying to reach with it? What do you expect the audience to do after they see or read the story?

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa,
His Majesty King Mphephu Ramabulana,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Premier of Limpopo and his provincial executive council,
Members of the national and provincial legislatures,
Members of the National and the Provincial Houses of Traditional Leaders,
Executive Mayor of Mopani District Municipality,
Executive Mayor of the Greater Giyani Local Municipality,
Heads of Chapter 9 institutions,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow South Africans,